Kenya Turns to Carbon Trade in a Bid to Curb Climate Change

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has  said the country is keen to partner with investment bankers to promote trading in carbon markets and  ensure the rehabilitation of the Mau and other threatened forests in the country. “ We see opportunities in the evolving carbon markets as negotiations continue under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that established the Reducing Emissions from forest Destruction and Degradation (REDD) plus initiative” he said.

The Premier  will be visiting Norway, in three weeks time to push for a fair share of the US$ 30 billion under the REDD plus project and help boost carbon trade in Kenya. The REDD plus initiative was mooted last year during the Global conference on Climate Change held in Copenhagen to help the developing countries mitigate the effects of climate change towards the reduction of the level of green house emissions.

In a conference held at the UN EP headquarters in Nairobi  last month the government committed  itself to support the restoration programmes but the financial implications had outstretched the national budgetary allocations.
The government has opened talks with other Carbon trading countries  to  embark  on forestry development programmes, toward mitigating the effects of climate change. He said efforts to meet challenges of Climate Change were geared to stem carbon emissions and shifting to green energy production to reduce the vagaries of Global warming towards a sustainable development.